PHC adjourns BRT probe case till October 4

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday adjourned the case related to probe in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project till October 4 after receiving an order of the Supreme Court suspending the order of high court restraining the NAB from probing the BRT project till final decision.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali adjourned the case when the additional advocate general produced the Supreme Court order about suspension of the high court order about the NAB inquiry into the BRT project.

The law officer also requested the court to adjourn the case till a decision of the apex court in the case.

When the bench took up the case for a hearing, NAB’s prosecutor Azim Dad Khan submitted the NAB’s preliminary inquiry report in the BRT before the bench. However, due to suspension of the high court order by the SC and NAB’s prosecutor request, the court did not open the inquiry report.

Questioning transparency in the matters of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project, the PHC on July 17 directed the NAB to probe the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being built in the provincial capital for possible irregularities.

“The operation of the impugned judgment of the PHC shall remain suspended,” ordered Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while heading a three-judge bench on Tuesday.

The larger bench issued the stay order in a petition filed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), filed through senior lawyers of Supreme Court Makhdoom Ali Khan and Syed Rafaqat Husain Shah, against an order passed by the Peshawar High Court (PHC).